Bongobongo land

And I do mean all the Jane Austen novels seven times.

I love Jane Austen.

I have just finished reading all these, and have to agree with Stansgran, he was actually talking about foreign aid, and how it is wasted, but of course got himself all caught up in the racist argument, lots of things seem to come down to racism these days. I am not a political person, don't trust any of them, but the buffoons do occasionly come out with something worth saying. Why do we spend our taxes on countries which are already wealthy and choose to ignore the plight of their poor? Why continue to cut benefits for people who live in this country, and may well have contributed to the economy? I choose the charities I support - non of them for overseas aid, we should be allowed to say 'enough is enough'. By all means lets give to specific causes, but not generally hand over our hard earned cash because we have pledged to do so. Who pledged?

Agreed Printmiss and Stansgran

The reference to Bongobongo land was a distraction from the real message he was trying to get across which I do not think was/is meant to be racist at all.

gillybob I think it is difficult to say if he intended racism or not. I think he did based on people I know who are UKIP supporters. He is certainly nationalistic and that makes me uncomfortable.

It is easy in times of international recession to 'close the gates' and look inward. However UK is still rich compared to many African and Asian countries where children die of preventable diseases due to natural disasters e.g drought, as well as man made disasters such as wars. Often the western world has a responsibility for some of the wars.

I accept there will be some instances of corruption but I do not think that is the case for all charitable funding. Britain used many African countries'
natural resources for its own wealth building benefit. To offer some overseas aid seems reasonable to me. I believe we are citizens of the world and the healthier the whole world is the better it is for everyone.

nanaej - well said.

Yes nanaej I know what you are saying but surely poverty is relative. It is easy for some people ( I don't mean you) to say that there is no poverty in this country when compared to countries like Africa but there really is no comparison. Try arguing the case for foreign aid with some poor families in this country who can't afford to keep their children warm and fed never mind supply them with new clothes and shoes. Also I wonder what place there is for foreign aid in a country that has a space program. I can only accept the giving of foreign aid if it is totally accountable and spent directly on the poor people for whom it was originally intended.

But gillybob in UK money is spent on all sorts of thingssuch as space research rather than being spent on needy UK families. The space program is a distraction from the main situation.

I agree that in the UK it is a disgrace that families are living in poverty. We do not have the excuse of adverse climate conditions or civil wars to cause famine and unsanitary conditions.
It is unnecessary in UK and if governments really saw it as a priority could resolve it.

I do not think reducing pverty in UK or overseasit has to be mutually exclusive.

And atomic submarines.
Trouble is the mayor of London gets away with saying outrageous and tactless things (like his recent comments about Malaysian women) and manages to bounce back, maybe this (possibly less intelligent) man thinks he can do likewise and people will forgive him?

I still think it is very hard for someone on a very low wage struggling to make ends meet to accept that we (as a country) give so much in foreign aid. Taking Pakistan for one example we are giving £1.4 Billion in foreign aid within 5 years, whilst only 1% of Pakistanis pay any income tax at all. The government dont seem to be concerned and make no effort to increase this. Why should they?

But it is not the fault of the poor people in less economically developed countries that their governments are letting them down. We cannot let people starve, or die from lack of clean water, or adequate health care because we do not approve of the politics.

I think that it is our duty as human beings to help those less fortunate. A child dies every 30 seconds from preventable causes somewhere in the world - very often as a result of poor sanitation or polluted water.

(Some of you know that I do have some experience of work in poverty stricken areas of Africa - just to give my credentials!)

This is not to say that the governments of such countries should not be subject to international censure; I don't think enough publicity is given to this situation. But then, we'd have people crying out again for aid to be with held. And who would suffer, as usual....?

And the UK do very well out of our investment in aid, we get payback in all kinds of ways that are not obvious from foreign student fees to huge arms deals.

I agree about the need to debate what this country gives in foreign aid, and to which countries. I believe this should extend to which countries we sell arms to, but of course that links to diplomacy, the need to keep communication open and more significantly, to how much cash we get from selling arms.
I do believe that Mr Bloom is an unpleasant individual, with views that are as Sel expressed it "so golf club". That's another stereotype, which my lovely son in law would disagree with. When our daughter brought him home, we were taken aback by his employment (sales) and golf club membership. I was (sadly) proud, when at the first club dinner she attended as his guest, she described it as being present at a meeting of a cult. This was 46years ago, they are now very happily married, and I love my son in law. We have discussions about politics, including golf club politics. As others have commented on this thread, the younger generation aren't as stuck in stereotypes as perhaps we were (are?) .
I do feel that many of the Ukip representatives are self promoting, self seeking, rather bigoted individuals. They appeal to the worst aspects of fear in our community, about "others" changing our way of life. My own feeling is that this tends to stifle debate, and result in polarised positions, that don't take the debate any further.

Television news in New Zealand reminded us this morning that this was the man who praised France for bombing and sinking the Rainbow Warrior (Greenpeace ship) in Auckland harbour. I should have thought that regardless of a UK politician's attitude towards ecology activists, global warming etc., he would invariably agree that bombing a ship (rush-hour train, nightclub) is wrong. The man is an outright stinker in every way.

Being more frivolous, wasn't there a song that went ' Bongobongobongo I don't want to leave the jungle?'
I think it may have been in Walt Disney's Jungle Book, but I could be wrong?
(Not trying to trivialise, but it's driving me crazy trying to remember! Must go and have hot chocolate )

Galen it was the Andrews sisters - BBB, I don't want to leave the Congo. Google the rest at your peril

Bingabangabongo I don't want to leave the congo................

Thanks! I can sleep tonight now!

You can now all return to serious discussion.

My feeling is that nations that can afford weapons, space research etc: should not be receiving aid from us!
I also feel that we should be spending more on social reform at home rather than on nuclear weaponry etc:

I have no quarrel with immigrants who are already here, but do feel strongly that future immigration should be curbed.

They were different times

I cannot understand why this has become a racist argument and I have no objection to foreign aid IF the aid was getting to the poor people who needed it the most. The corruption in the counties in receipt of the "aid money" (india, rwanda, pakistan, uganda, sierra leone etc) is rife and much of it is known to be spent on private planes, luxury estates, villas and mansions for those at the top of the tree.

Uganda ...38million pounds of aid used to buy a private jet. They have also just ordered 500 million pounds worth of fighter jets from Russia.

Sierra Leone... 1.2 million aid money missing and unaccounted for .

Congo.... 133 million in aid. The president has a multi million pound Paris property portfolio (purchased with aid money) he also owns 16 of the most luxurious properties in Paris. UK tax payers will give them another 250 million by 2015 !

Rwanda . 75 million in aid in 2012 . The president has just purchased 2 luxury jets worth 30 million pound each .

I could go on and on and on .

It does start bongo bongo, is this where he the phrase comes from I wonder?

May I quote !Charity begins at home? And look at the mote in your own eye? (Loose quote)

Just another example of how foreign aid is used.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2387338/As-Cameron-attacks-Bongo-Bongo-MEP--How-1billion-cash-used-help-Nigeria-join-space-race.html

I just listened to the Bongo song with the Andrew sisters, also googled it's origins.

Comes from a 1947show and is actually called 'Civilization'. It is meant to be satirical and is sung by a person from the Congo whose village has just been 'invaded' by missionaries. The singer is saying he does not want to become 'civilised' and goes on to list all the evils of civilization.

It didn't seem particularly racist to me.

Was what he said worth reporting? Who reported it? Why did they do it? Who is getting worried about the party? Do they appear to be representing the things that the majority are concerned about? Are they being studied microscopically and any mistake, however small or irrelevant,being pounced on? (a bit like GN)
You didn't hear a lot about them when they were not rocking the boat, did you?